Aberdeenshire to build more than 2,500 new affordable homes

The council’s draft strategic housing investment plan estimates that around £95 million of the total cost involved in creating 2,516 new properties could be secured through the Scottish Government’s resource planning assumptions.

Under the plans, 314 homes will be given the go-ahead between 2016-17, a further 495 from 2017-18, 458 between 2018-19, 380 from 2019-20, 430 from 2020-21, and 439 in the following year.

Councillor Anne Allan, chair of the council’s social work and housing committee, told the Press and Journal: “The council has ambitious plans to increase the supply of affordable homes. It will help to reduce our waiting lists and provide much needed homes in Aberdeenshire.

“The government has given the money to do it. We can’t do it without their funding. It is really needed.”

Through council policy, developers are asked either to provide or contribute to affordable housing provision within any proposed developments.

Stephan Archer, the council’s director of infrastructure services, said the build rate for affordable housing was “intrinsically linked” to the economy, which had been hit in Aberdeenshire by the decline of the oil and gas industry.